thanks for sharing your experiences! will get around to mess with this later. first going to test out how strong nova sorc is.

Been messing with Flickering Flame. 88% Max Fire Resist with a massive overcap vs. Conviction is absolutely fucking bonkers.
Imagine using Guardian Angel on your Merc, but it's not wasting the chest slot and lets you keep CoH/Fort?
Yeah. That's the dream.

Two (probably?) optimal setups for safety/damage mix:

My preferred setup, since Arioc's Deadly Strike is pretty bursty:
- 8 Resist Fire/-15% Flickering Flame in an Eth 15ED Corona
- Chains of Honor in an Eth 15ED Archon Plate (8 Life leech, which Fort doesn't provide)
- Eth Arioc's Needle with 15/40 Jewel

Alternative, insane setup:
- 8 Resist Fire/-15% Flickering Flame in an Eth 15ED Corona
- Fort in an Eth 15ED Archon Plate (+5% Max Lightning Resist)
- eBOTD War Pike or Giant Thresher (12-15 Life Leech)

If you've ever tried a Merc with Guardian Angel and proper resistances, you know that Merc just refuses to die at Trav. It's absolutely bonkers.

Then there's a high end, "impossible" DIY setup with

- 8 Resist Fire/-15% Flickering Flame in an Eth 15ED Corona
- eBOTD War Pike
- 24FHR 4os Archon Plate with:
2x 15/40 Jewels
1x 7FHR/30ED/40 Damage to Demons Jewel
1x 30ED/40 Damage to Demons/20+ Lightning Res Jewel

Can swap eBOTD War Pike for eBOTD Giant Thresher and replace a 15/40 in the chest with another 30ED/40DTD jewel, but either way. Same concept.

This post was edited by Exokek on Jan 26 2022 02:33pm

so this sacrifices some amount of dps due to loss of ias from Andy's right? not worrying as much about merc dying is definitely a QoL improvement, but do you also think this saves time in the long run from not having to resurrect as much?

good thoughts i already was thinkin flickering flame could push the survival especially vs conviction council huge...

but yea with ebotd wp and forty + andy face which my merc is using atm would loose +1 ias bp not sure if its worth cause it will slower the kill speed ?

This post was edited by Spartacus160 on Jan 26 2022 02:50pm

Idk, but
the ed and gf lost is price i would not pay for safety 😅

You do sacrifice a bit of solid chunk of DPS compared to using a simple Andy's, but the survivability is markedly better across the board.
I still frequently get people in PMs telling me their Merc dies all the time; Flickering should solve that entirely without needing you to hold Leap.
At this point the biggest question is always how long the timer lasts.

If the timer is at 30s, you just want to push for damage and deal with the consequences (15/40Andy's, GFace, 3os circlet with 15/40s or whatever). People even run DPS Barbs then (Zerkers with Lem's offhand, etc. https://d2.maxroll.gg/d2planner/2801061m#3)
If the timer is at 40-50s, you can usually sacrifice some killspeed for extra goldfind (CoT, 3os of Wealth + 3x 40ED/30GF, etc.)
If the timer goes to 60s and we're assuming you don't have access to degenerate impossible goldfind circlets and whatnot, Flickering Flame can likely take the spot, since you're in no rush to beat the timer.
Then again CoT does a good Flickering Flame impression on an average day, and has built-in Goldfind.

I also need to determine if the hydras at Trav were scaled back up after the recent changes, since a nerf to them a LONG TIME AGO made them a lot less deadly for us.

The guide was written when the timer was 60s, hence the assumptions.
The timer STILL fluctuates to this day between 30-60s depending on Region/Time of day. It's wild.

This post was edited by Exokek on Jan 26 2022 03:01pm

As long as your Merc lives and you clear fast, just keep pushing the #s

at least its very comfortable to use that flickering flame on merc helm...

u know sometimes it happens u dont pay attention and merc can die on conviction so this would slower the timer more than having a nice fr stack on him in my eyes...

yep sometimes having to do a lot of microing to ensure merc survival is mentally exhausting. whatever it takes to motivate you to squeeze in more runs, regardless of pure efficiency, is a win on my book.

Yep. Anyone that wants the most laid back setup will use Flickering Flame imo.
The helmet slot is the biggest flex spot in the build, and Flickering alone takes any Merc from "sometimes I die because of Conviction" to "haha i don't give a fuuuuuuuccccckkkkk" territory.

Depends if they scale PvM hydras back up in power; might hurt us a little bit.